Review of Comfort 34

Basic specs.

The Comfort 34 aka Sweden Yachts C34 is a sailboat designed by the Swedish maritime architect Kennet Albinsson in the mid seventies. Several hundred boats have been produced. The Comfort 34 is built by the Swedish yard Sweden Yachts.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Interior

The interior is like many other boats made of mahogany. Mahogany belongs to the hardwood species, known for being water-repellent and resistant to decay. It has an attractive wood grain and holds wood polish and varnish well.

Rig

The Comfort 34 is equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

Keel

Fin keel

The Comfort 34 is equipped with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a full keel.

The keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.83 - 1.93 meter (6.00 - 6.30 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

The boat may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD11 diesel engine at 23 hp (17 kW). Calculated max speed is about 5.3 knots

The transmission is a saildrive.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Comfort 34 is 1.93, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 7.2 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Comfort 34 is about 204 kg/cm, alternatively 1142 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 204 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1142 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

Motion Comfort Ratio

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Comfort 34 is 26.3.

Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 58% of all similar sailboat designs. This comfort value is just above average.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Comfort 34 is 2.93.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 76% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Comfort 34 is 37%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 31% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just below average.

D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Comfort 34 is 249 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.

50% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. This boat has a precise average ratio between displacement and length!

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

The SA/D for Comfort 34 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 14.5, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 17.4.

The SA/D ratio indicates that it is faster than 21% of all similar sailboat designs in light wind.

Over- / underrigged

The Comfort 34 has more rig than 38% of all similar sailboats, which indicates that the boat is slightly underrigged.

RSP (Relative Speed Performance)

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for Comfort 34 is 50

The relative speed performance is 50 which means that a it is faster than 50% of all similar sailboat designs.

Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 35m² (376 ft²).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.

Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.

Rig

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Mainsail halyard	31.3 m	(102.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	31.3 m	(102.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	31.3 m	(102.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Jib sheet	10.2 m	(33.5 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Genoa sheet	10.2 m	(33.5 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Mainsheet	25.5 m	(83.7 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	22.4 m	(73.6 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Cunningham	3.3 m	(10.8 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Kickingstrap	6.6 m	(21.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Clew-outhaul	6.6 m	(21.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Comfort 34 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.